My Mark Upon Your Skin
by PristinelyUngifted
Summary: Tony laughs, and then he has arms full of Loki and he can think again and huh, it seems like everything is going to be okay. Weird. Tony Stark proposes marriage. Sort of. Loki accepts. With conditions. Sequel to 'On the Altar of Loki Liesmith.'
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings:** Shapeshifting/Gendershifting Loki; Explicit Language; Violence.

**Notes: **

The appearance of Female!Loki is based on actress Erica Cerra.

The appearance of Hel ('normal' side and general musculature) is based on actress Rosamund Pike.

The appearance of Fenrir in his human form is based on actor Santiago Cabrera.

As always, canon is pulled from here, there, and everywhere. The tone of this story may be very different from the first two, as it is the first in the series to be mainly narrated by Tony Stark.

Special thanks to my husband for being so enthusiastic about the first two fics and beta reading the third.

This fic will be updated once every 1-2 weeks depending on time and interest.

* * *

><p><em>My Mark Upon Your Skin<em>

_He left his mark upon my skin_

_Said I've lost my loose heart_

_To the cold, cold wind_

- The Mark, Cold Specks

**-l-**

Tony Stark never tells his lover what gender to be. Strange sentence, strange statement – most people don't tell their lover what gender to be because they aren't a big enough asshole to insist on a sex change operation – but Tony is dating a shapeshifter, so it's an actual thing that could happen, no scalpels necessary.

It would still make Tony an asshole if he asked.

Don't get him wrong, Tony is totally an asshole. But not about this. His lover, known to the world as Lori Silverton and/or Cold Iron, to the Avengers as the Queen of Air and Darkness, and to Tony as Loki Liesmith, has had people telling him…her… zir what and who to be zir whole life, and Tony knows what that feels like, how you fold up and collapse in, twist your guts trying to fit inside someone else's expectations. Maybe what they want is something you used to be, or something you never can be, but the point is that Tony knows what it's like and it sucks and also he's not stupid, he knows that Which form do you find more pleasing? is the shapeshifter version of Does this dress make me look fat?

So when Loki melts out of the shadows in Tony's room and asks what gender Tony would prefer tonight, Tony smiles and says what he always says. "I want Loki, however Loki feels like looking."

Loki smiles back, test passed until the next time the question is asked, and quirks a brow. "And if Loki is feeling blue?"

Tony's grin gets wider. "Then I'll do my best to cheer you up, princess."

Because fuck yes, Frost Giant markings have become one of Tony's kinks.

**-l-**

It has been not quite four years since Loki (_found a home_) returned to Midgard and resumed her guise of Lori Silverton, officially adding Cold Iron to the roster of Avengers. In that time Queen Pepper has married Tony's driver Happy (_Loki was one of the maids of the bride and honored to be so, and created fantastical ice sculptures for the event_) and become pregnant with her first child, Darcy Lewis has begun to positively pine over dear monstrous Bruce (_though she thinks none of them can see_), and Loki and Natasha have become what humans term Best Friends Forever. (_But alas, it will not be forever. Not until Loki can arrange it to be so, and she has plans, many plans, she will not lose another child, not even her wish daughter, especially not her wish daughter…_)

Loki and Tony have continued much as they began – experimenting equally with science, magic, and sex, creating many wonders even as they rain destruction down on their enemies in a hail of ice and plasma fire. Loki has a place, just as she always wanted, and it is here on Midgard with her High Priest and their shield mates, and Loki schemes and plots to keep all those things on this world that she considers hers just as she likes them.

Once such scheme is soon to come to fruition. For the past two and a half years, ever since an incident occurred in which her Tony was taken by enemies and hidden from her sight with magic, Loki has been weaving a spell. She cannot use the sigils of Asgard that bound the followers of Loki and Hermes to her in the old days (_for they would draw the attention of Heimdall and Odin, and Loki will not risk putting any part of Tony's life in Odin's hands_). She has instead been reacquainting herself with the runes of the Sidhe, for she is the Queen of the Unseelie, though she has rarely before relied so heavily on the powers that grants her. And yet, those runes also cannot make up the spell alone, for the power of the fae comes from the Crown of the Night Court, and should Loki ever lose the crown then she would lose Tony along with it…

So she stays up nights in the workshop with Tony, he working on his machines, and Loki weaving her spells. She studies each rune, the lines of power that feed it, and slowly, over time, she finds ways to change them. Learns to wield the magic of Jötenheim that runs in her veins and marry it with that of the crown.

She rushes, because the spell must be complete and placed on Tony soon. For now people remark on how well he is aging – he is almost fifty, which Loki has come to understand is the beginning of old age for humans – but soon he and others will realize that he is not aging, and in fact looks healthier and somewhat younger than he did several years before.

Loki would have him bound to her before he realizes, in case he takes it badly.

**-l-**

Tony is at a board meeting at Stark Industries and almost ready to climb the walls. Maybe fake a call for Iron Man. He'd gotten out of most of these meetings when he made Pepper CEO, but he's still the majority shareholder and also Pep's pregnant and he's supposed to be helping her out until after the squalling bundle of joy arrives (_kids still make him nervous, he's glad Loki's are grown up and immortal and sort of Natasha_). But that doesn't mean he's going to pay attention. He's physically present and sitting upright and they should all be grateful, which is of course why he's taken completely off guard and when he gets home Loki is going to kill him.

"Mr. Stark?" a sharp voice pierces the fog of his mental redesign of the Cold Iron armor (_they're on Mark V now – there'd be more, but Loki gets stubborn when ze likes something_).

He blinks. "Yes."

"So you agree it would be good for the company?"

Tony has no idea what they're talking about, but he's just supposed to be following Pep's agenda so she probably preapproved whatever it is and will get pissed if Tony throws a wrench in the works. "Yeah. Sure," he says, already drifting back into ways to make the leg joints and alloy flexible enough for Loki to shapeshift while in the suit.

There's smiling and clapping all around and Tony automatically smiles back, his press persona slipping over him.

"Excellent Mr. Stark!" some old white guy in glasses says as they all start pushing back their chairs. "We will look forward to the announcement of your engagement."

Tony nods and smiles and it's not until he's the last one left in the room that the words sink in and he almost falls out of his chair.

Forcing himself not to fly into a rage, he takes out his cellphone and orders JARVIS to play back the end of the meeting because JARVIS records everything.

And yep, that's what he thought. Tony just agreed that he should ask Lori Silverton to marry him for the good of the company because it's not like he hasn't been dating her steadily for years anyway (_the shapeshifting helps, he won't deny it, being able to cheat without cheating_), never mind that they're totally fine as they are and Tony is pretty sure Loki would have mentioned marriage by now if ze was interested and might be mortally offended when Tony brings this up because ze's a god (_Tony's become a believer, sometimes he even prays_) and Tony's a mortal and they're equal and not all at the same time.

This better not have been Pepper's idea.

(_He knows it's not, he knows as soon as he thinks it that she wouldn't meddle like that, he's just being a dick and she's been all gung ho about marriage and babies lately and sometimes he doesn't know how to talk to her anymore._)

**-l-**

Loki is in zir side of the workshop when Tony gets back to the tower. Ze's wearing the female form that ze uses most often, since it's the one that everyone but Tony thinks is zir only form. Ze's leaning over one of the steel tables, chattering to the bots that roll around zir feet and Tony stops just to admire the way zir long black hair falls across zir cheek, the warm brown of zir skin and the cut of zir cheekbones. Olive green eyes flick up to meet his, and Loki smiles, a fierce, wicked thing that is the same no matter what face ze wears.

The lab door opens and Tony strides in, loosening his tie and shrugging off his jacket.

"Hey Snowflake. How's tricks?"

"Quite well," ze answers. "Now tell me what has you so agitated, Brightstar."

(_Not even a minute and he's already busted._)

Tony doesn't even grimace at the nickname anymore, and not just because Loki always says it seriously, like a title ze's bestowed on him. He also doesn't bother to lie, because he can't lie to the God of Lies. Loki always knows, and sometimes ze counts the lies around zir, leaving everyone but Tony confused about the numbers ze announces seemingly at random. (_The highest they've ever gotten in one night was two hundred and six, and that was when they were attending a conference at the United Nations._)

"I wasn't paying attention in a board meeting and after everyone else left I realized that I agreed to propose to you because getting married will be good for public relations," Tony says, not looking Loki in the eyes. He rolls his sleeves up and goes to see what Loki is working on, his hind brain screaming at him to run the other way all the while. But hey, it's not like he's ever listened to it before, why start now?

As braced as he is for some kind of temper tantrum (_and Loki has thrown some memorable ones, though ze hasn't raised a hand to Tony since that time with the panic attack, back before Tony knew Lori was Loki_), he is completely floored when all Loki says is, "Very well, but we shall be wed in the ways of both our peoples, and if you are to be my Prince Consort I will have to present you in Álfheim."

Tony freezes, mouth hanging open, and almost gives himself whiplash looking into Loki's face to see if ze is messing with him.

Loki laughs and comes around the table to plant a kiss on his forehead. Even in female form, ze is still a bit taller than him. "Don't gape at me so, my Tony. I have always intended to bind us together. I was merely honoring Midgardian custom in waiting for you to propose. It can be emasculating and frightening for a Midgardian male if the woman is the one to propose marriage."

Tony's ears are ringing and his heart is hammering against the arc reactor and he hears himself mutter, "You've been reading Cosmo again."

"I read that in Live Science, actually."

Tony laughs, and then he has arms full of Loki and he can think again and huh, it seems like everything is going to be okay.

Weird.

**-l-**

"So what does a fairy wedding involve anyway?" Tony asks after they have celebrated Loki's acceptance of Tony's suit with a bout of carnality.

Loki is male and naked and lying spread-eagled on Tony's bed, Tony equally naked and sitting next to him, idly running his fingers up and down Loki's spine.

"Since you do not have crests of your own, you shall be tattooed with the markings of my house," Loki lies. "Those of the Night Court, and those of Jötunheim. This will bind us together, and allow us to share our strength."

"Tell me you're not bullshitting right now, cupcake."

Loki rolls over so that he can look Tony in the eye. "I swear to you on the lives of my children that I have long planned to mark you as mine, and give you my strength in return in the manner that I have described."

That is true enough. Of course, this is the spell Loki has been crafting for some years, and it has nothing to do with marriage on either Álfheim or Jötunheim, but Tony has no way of knowing that. And presented to him this way, he will not feel able to say no.

Loki will not risk losing his love, his Tony, his priest (_soon to be his druid_).

Tony narrows his eyes, and Loki is sure that the Brightstar of his mind has caught that Loki's oath contains no mention of marriage. It is one of the reasons that Loki loves this man so. In Tony's vernacular, you can't bullshit a bullshitter.

But evidently Tony decides that he does not care enough to pursue the matter (_yet another reason Loki loves him_) and asks only, "What do you mean by share our strength?"

Loki sits up and pulls Tony against his chest, folding his larger frame around the man. He cards his fingers through that brown-black hair, smiling into dark eyes. Tony makes a noise, half protest, half renewed arousal. He does so love to be manhandled.

Voice deep and sensual, Loki murmurs into Tony's ear, even as his hands roam. "You will gain some of my physical strength, and heal faster, as I do." This is important, very important, for though Hel's blessing gave Tony the long life of an Aesir, he is still frightfully mortal and sometimes Loki wakes from violent dreams of Tony broken and bleeding, gasping for air. "With time and practice you will be able to call on my magic and wield it as your own, and I shall be able to draw on the arc reactor. And no one will be able to hide you from me, no more than they can hide me from myself." (_You will never be able to hide from me._)

Shrewd Tony moans, his mind working even with Loki doing his best to distract. "Healing factor," he pants as Loki suckles the skin of his collar bone. "That means I'll age slower, right? Like Wolverine."

"Yes," Loki hisses, clutching at Tony's shoulders, eyes squeezed shut.

"Okay," Tony says. "Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

"Tony, if you do not stop fidgeting I am going to paralyze you with magic," Loki threatens.

"But it huuurrrttssss," Tony whines. "At least let me get drunk before you stab me with any more needles."

They are in Tony's bedroom, two days later. Tony is lying on his stomach and letting Loki tattoo him. He just hadn't counted on how much of him Loki would need to tattoo. By the time they're done, Tony will have marks on his arms, legs, thighs, back, chest, and even his face in all the same places that Loki does in zir Jötunn form. Really, it's good that Loki is so strong and can hold him down, because he's blown through manly stoicism and moved on to bargaining and contemplating escape.

"No. I told you. All magic has a price, and the price of this binding is your blood, pain, and acceptance."

"You sound like an episode of _Once Upon A Time_," Tony pouts. Loki huffs and frowns, just like Tony knew ze would. Loki hates _Once Upon A Time_, gets totally pissed and starts screaming at the television about how the magic is all wrong, and even wrote a letter of complaint to ABC, it was fucking hilarious. JARVIS got it all on video.

Loki's response to that is to jab the primitive looking magic tattoo needle back into Tony's skin. Tony screams.

"Stop being melodramatic," Loki says with a roll of zir eyes. Ze is in male form, as ze often is when they are alone in Tony's bedroom. JARVIS automatically splices in old footage of them having sex while Loki's in female form to the security feed. Tony is too paranoid about someone finding out Loki is Loki to ever let zir be caught recognizably on camera. Sure, Loki is Natasha's quasi-mother figure/best friend now, and ze's saved Clint's life and they team up to play pranks sometimes, and ze drinks tea with Bruce, and even occasionally spars with Thor and gives him advice on Asgard stuff, and makes Steve blush, and Coulson turned out to be only mostly dead, but people are unforgiving, and Tony isn't naïve enough to think any of those things will matter if any of them ever find out. (_The bad things should matter to him, he knows they should, he shouldn't want to be with a liar and a killer, but the only guilt he feels is about how much he just doesn't give a shit, and that's fleeting because most of the time he doesn't think about it_.)

There is a ripple of skin and a tingle in the air that Tony has come to associate with Loki's magic, and he wonders why Loki has taken female form in the middle of this, but then a knock comes at the door and Tony knows why.

"Tony? We heard a scream," Steve's voice comes through the door.

"Come in, Steven," Loki calls in a way that Tony knows means ze's smirking. Tony is naked, and Loki was shirtless in zir male form, and Tony's willing to bet is still shirtless in female form. Loki gets a kick out of messing with the others by pretending not to understand human taboos, particularly the ones concerning sex and nudity.

The door opens, and Tony hears Steve cough. He chuckles, then winces when the motion pulls at the skin of his recently tattooed shoulders.

"Ummm, what are you guys…?" Steve says, sounding like he's staring at the ceiling. Tony bets he's staring at the ceiling.

"Oh please, like you haven't caught us doing weirder stuff."

"Tony is undergoing the ritual binding necessary to become my husband," Loki says, drawing another line down Tony's left arm without warning. He yelps. "Though if he does not hold still I may be forced to shackle him. It will reflect poorly on me if the runes are badly drawn."

"I still don't see why I have to be the one to get full body tattoos. Why can't we tattoo you? I should at least get to put my name across your ass."

"Because I am the socially and magically superior partner. That is how these things are done. But if it will make you stop this caterwauling, I will allow you to put an outline of the arc reactor on my chest."

"Really?"

"I don't see why not. It can only strengthen the spell."

Cheered by that, Tony turns his head to get a glimpse of Steve still standing in the doorway. His cheeks are pink, but he is grinning at them like a proud papa bear. It's creepy.

"You two are getting married?"

"_That_ is what you got out of all that?" Tony demands.

Steve backs up and shuts the door. A few seconds later they hear, "Hey everybody, it's okay. Tony and Lori are getting married!" Which, while typical Steve behavior, still makes Tony a little suspicious.

Tony purses his lips and then looks up at Loki while keeping his head as still as possible. "Did you just put a mind whammy on him so that he wouldn't mention my full body tattoos?"

Loki shrugs, zir breasts jiggling enticingly with the movement. "The fewer people who know about them and the ability to share power they will grant us, the more useful they will be."

Tony gives a miniscule nod, accepting that explanation. "You're even more paranoid than I am."

"I know, Brightstar."

"I love that about you."

A rich chuckle that deepens as Loki switches back to male form. "I know, Brightstar."

**-l-**

When the tattoos are complete – and Loki insists on doing them all at once because the spell won't take otherwise – Tony feels like a piece of tenderized meat, and looks kind of badass and tribal. The ink is a dark blue, and the pattern mirrors Loki's Jötunn markings, which a few extra whirligigs here and there that Tony assumes is the fairy part of the magic.

The whole process takes about eight hours, and the last two are torture. The only thing that keeps Tony from running for the door, aside from Loki holding him down, is the reminder that as soon as the tattoos are finished, the magic will kick in and give Tony super healing.

And that works as advertised. The skin is still sore, but rapidly approaches the level of sunburn soreness, as opposed to just-let-my-lover-carve-me-with-a-needle soreness. Tony moves to stand in front of his full length mirror, still naked, and checks out his tats, awkwardly craning his head over his shoulder to look at the ones on his back. It's kind of sexy, how the two stripes curve down to his ass and then flare out into complicated Celtic knots.

Loki is watching him with a hungry look, and Tony grins at zir in the mirror, eyes raking over the planes of Loki's masculine chest. Zir male form is pale, much paler than the female one, and zir eyes are a bright emerald green.

(_This face, this tall man with long limbs, is what Tony thinks of as Loki's true form, though he knows for a shapeshifter of Loki's caliber that there is no such thing. But it is how Tony first saw his lover, that night in Germany, and remembering those first encounters now almost makes him fond. He's not a good person, he can admit it, and hey, what's important is that Loki is saving more lives than he takes now, and if loving him puts more black marks on Tony's slate, well it's not like it was clean to start with._)

"Try to access my magic," Loki says, pupils blown wide, in desire or for some magical reason. Tony decides it's desire.

"How?" Tony asks.

"Reach for it. Reach for me. Call for my power with your mind. Will it to move through you."

Tony tries. He tries until he starts to feel stupid and his face turns red because he's holding his breath. Frustrated, he shakes his arms out and cracks his neck, finding that his skin is no longer sore at all. His tattoos are completely healed, as if he's had them for years.

Loki moves closer, and Tony can feel the electric tingle of magic, only now it zings back and forth between them, a feedback loop of static charge.

"Until you are more practiced, vocal commands and hand motions may help to focus you. Magic is about intent. Believe you can do a thing, want it enough, and you can."

Tony nods, tapping his fingers against the arc reactor as he thinks.

And then he has an idea.

Before he can give himself too much time to consider it, too much time to doubt, Tony tells his reflection, "I am Iron Man." And then he whirls to the side, raising his hands in the familiar motion of a repulsor blast.

A blaze of green fire blossoms from his left palm, the same color as Loki's magic. But it is gone in the next second, extinguished because Tony's attention has been brought back to the mirror, concentration shattered.

When Tony accesses Loki's magic, his tattoos light him up like a Christmas tree, glowing the same color as the arc reactor.

Loki looks like ze is in serious danger of jizzing zir pants.

"Exquisite," ze breathes, all but pouncing on Tony.

Tony cackles into Loki's mouth, because fuck yes, he's Tony Motherfucking Magic Stark.

**-l-**

Loki casts a glamour on Tony to hide his tattoos, and says ze will maintain it only until Tony has learned enough magic to cast one himself. Tony gets that he needs to cover the ones on his face, because they're really obvious and Jötunn-like and will send everyone into an epic round of pearl clutching, but he kind of wishes he could keep the other ones. They'd be hidden by his clothes during public appearances.

But Loki is adamant.

"I enjoy looking at my mark upon your skin as much as you do, Brightstar, but what use is showing the dagger in your hand to the one you intend to stab with it?"

Tony nods. "Seem the innocent flower, but be the serpent beneath it. Got it."

Loki raises both brows.

"What? I live with you and Thor. I started Googling Shakespearean quotes out of self-defense."

Loki laughs and damn, all these years later that still does mushy embarrassing things to Tony that he routinely blames on a hiccup in the arc reactor. (_Like anyone ever buys that excuse. Tony's technology is awesome._)

He wraps his arms around Loki's currently feminine waist and kisses zir.

"You're smearing my lipstick," Loki complains.

"I love you," Tony says in a shaking rush. As always, it surprises him when it comes out of his mouth, something ripped up and disgorged from his guts without his permission. (_He used to ramble on after blurting something like that, attempting to distract, misdirect, cover his embarrassment. Now he just buries his face in Loki's neck._)

So he's having a bit of a moment.

Loki gives him a soft look then, and that is how Tony knows, more than Loki's whispered, "And I you, Tony Ironsmith," that Loki loves him too. Ze lets Tony see the soft places, the weaknesses. Gives Tony what no other creature in all the realms has from Loki Liesmith – trust. (_Oh Tony isn't stupid. Loki is the God of Lies, and the God of Lies is a liar. Loki keeps secrets. But Tony does too. That's half the fun, trying to ferret out each other's plans. And knowing everything isn't important. The only important thing they need to know is that they won't hurt each other. Not seriously._)

Loki plants a final kiss on Tony's lips, then reaches up and tweaks the end of his beard. "Go have your pre-press conference glass of scotch whilst I repair my make-up."

Tony smirks and refuses to let Loki's waist go. "I like it how it is. You should leave it. Start a new trend. We can call it 'afternoon delight.'"

Loki rolls zir eyes, running zir thumb over Tony's lips to remove the color that has been transferred there. "Go now, or I will unleash a troll during the press conference and tell Pepper that you misled me as to what the phrase 'trolling the media' means."

With a squawk of exaggerated outrage Tony lets zir go. "That is ridiculous and hurtful, why would you do such a thing."

Loki smiles. "Because she will believe me, and be quite angry that you have abused my cultural ignorance. Then she will get so upset that the babe in her belly will come early and it will be all your fault."

"Pure evil. That's what you are," Tony says, heading toward his sidebar. He pours himself an entire tumbler full of whiskey, because ever since the whole binding spell thing (_that may or may not actually be part of a wedding ceremony, he's not sure whether to call bullshit on that yet_) he has a godlike tolerance for alcohol, which is kind of awesome and horrible at the same time. Tossing back the whole glass will be just enough to give him a minor buzz for maybe fifteen minutes.

**-l-**

Loki does not set a troll loose during the press conference. In fact, within a few minutes ze has the entire pack of rabid reporters eating out of zir hand and sighing about how romantic it all is. Tony can't do anything but admire that, one showman to another. (_No shame in getting schooled by the Silvertongue._)

Loki's appeared at press conferences before, of course, as Tony's assistant, and then later as his girlfriend, but they've never given a joint interview before, and Loki's never spoken to the press about their relationship, other than to confirm that there is one.

"We made the rings ourselves, in Brightstar's workshop," Loki says, holding up their joined hands to reveal the two simple bands. At least simple in appearance: they're made of vibranium, and Loki's enchanted them to automatically adjust to perfect finger size and always return to the hand of the wearer. Tony's already has a streak of grease around the inside.

"Brightstar?" a reporter calls out, and laughter makes its way through the crowd.

Loki scoots closer and reaches out, parting Tony's suit jacket and undoing the buttons of his shirt until the light of the arc reactor shines through. The crowd goes quiet when ze says, "Brightstar. The heart and mind of this man shine brighter than the stars. Even when I am lost, I need only look to my Tony to find my way home again."

Tony can't decide whether to buy it and be touched, or laugh his ass off. That's the thing with Loki. Everything ze says can be a truth or a lie, and more often is both at the same time. Tony decides to believe this is both, and surges forward to give his fiancé a filthy open mouthed kiss. (_He might be getting married, dammit, but he's still Tony Stark._)

Then someone aawwws, and holy shit, at least two people are crying and Tony feels his lips give an involuntary twitch.

"Mr. Stark, do you have a nickname for Ms. Silverton?"

Tony leans forward, sure that Loki's red lipstick is smeared all over his face, and says into the microphone, "I have nicknames for everyone, but for her the one that really stuck is 'Snowflake.'"

**-l-**

Hel is waiting for them on their floor when they get back to the Avengers Tower, wearing her creepy Soul Reaper hood. She's visited often enough that Tony's gotten over her appearance – one half of her looking roughly like a female Thor, and the other half like a female Loki when ze's all blued out – but the hood still freaks him out and she totally wears it on purpose.

"Lokispawn," Tony greets her.

"Step-Mother," Hel returns.

Tony rolls his eyes. "I still maintain that Loki is your other mom and I'm your soon to be step-father." Then he shivers, because just calling himself 'Father' in any capacity makes his insides squirm.

Hel and Loki ignore him, like they always do, and Tony meanders over to the bar to pour them all drinks like a well-trained pony. That. Serves drinks.

Whatever.

Loki stays in female form since they're out in the living room, and tucks zir arm through Hel's on the blue-skinned side, leading her over to the loveseat. They're doing their usual longwinded back and forth where they basically ask each other what's up in iambic pentameter. Tony lets the god talk wash over him, mentally translating it into modern day English.

_Hey, Dad. Heard down in the underworld that you and Tony are getting hitched. Congrats._

_Thanks, Hel. I'm glad that you approve. Sorry that you found out that way. We were planning on coming down and telling you in person._

_It's no big deal. I heard from a television reporter who just had a near death experience. Nice job during the interview. You really had them eating out of the palm of your hand._

_Speaking of eating out of the palm of your hand, how is your brother?_

_Fenrir's fine. I think he's getting bored though. Word's gotten around that he's chained to the gates of my palace, so now he doesn't even have interlopers to savage anymore. And I still can't find a way to break his chains. I've tried appealing to Asgard, but Odin returns my messages unopened._

_Fuck Odin. He's such a dickhead._

_I know, right?_

At that point in the conversation, Tony hands a White Russian to Hel, sticks a mojito on the table by Loki's elbow, and retreats to the chair across from them with his glass of scotch.

Hel accepts her drink with a soft, "Many thanks, Step-Mother," and a smile that somehow unifies the disparate halves of her face. Loki just takes the drink as zir due and yeah, it pretty much is.

After that, Tony kicks his mental god to English translator back into gear.

_I am worried about Fenrir though. He's never been in wolf form for so long. He can't even speak with me with those chains muzzling him, and I honestly am starting to doubt whether Odin is ever going to let him out._

_Hmm. Now that Tony and I are to wed, perhaps there is something I can do. Not as myself, of course, they must never know I'm not in prison, but as the Queen of Air and Darkness. As far as the Allfather is concerned, Mab is marrying a hero of Midgard. I can request an audience as one of the rulers of the fae, and citing my friendship with Queen Hel, Tony and I will ask that Fenrir be banished to Midgard to serve the Avengers._

_Do you think that would work?_

_Maybe. I didn't want to try it when there was still hope that Odin might see reason. I didn't want to see Fenrir lose his home permanently, but if he really is likely to remain chained… Yes. We'll ask Odin, and if that doesn't work, Tony will find a way to sever Fenrir's chains. Won't you, Ironsmith?_

Tony gives a grim smile and says, "Yes, dear."

Tony's been down to Hel's palace in Niflheim a few times over the years. (_Apparently it's okay and he won't die because he has Hel's blessing on his brow, whatever the hell (heh) that means._) Fenrir's an okay kid, as far as he can tell. Kind of terrifying, what with currently being trapped in the form of a giant wolf, but he's always overjoyed to see Loki and he lets Tony sit on his back and hang out whenever Hel and Loki are gossiping or whatever.

(_This is really his life. The most frightening part is he wouldn't change it._)

After that it's all wedding talk, which Tony tunes out because he's almost a hundred percent certain that as the groom he's not allowed to have an opinion.


	3. Chapter 3

It is customary, when the ruler of the Ice Elves takes a new consort, to hold a banquet in the Hall of Ice and Shadows, the heart of Underhill, and invite all of the kingdom's subjects so that any who care to can challenge the proposed consort for the right to rule at their monarch's side. Tony practices wielding Loki's magic and packs some extra firepower into his latest Iron Man design. Loki watches with a smirk and criticizes Tony's inability to cast spells without hand gestures.

Each of them wearing their armor, they travel to Álfheim in that way Loki has of stepping between. Tony doesn't understand the mechanics of it, and Loki can't explain it in any scientific way. There's talk of skipping along the branches of the World Tree, of bridges between stars, and Tony keeps his faceplate down and resolutely refuses to look at anything but Loki. He's already stared into one abyss and he didn't like the things that stared back.

They arrive with a whisper, a quiet shushing of displaced air, and Tony has to grit his teeth as the world around him, the very fabric of reality, seems to writhe.

Loki presses something into Tony's gauntleted hand, and Tony looks down to see that it's a peppermint, like the kind given out in doctor's offices and banks the world over. "It helps," Loki says, smiling at Tony indulgently.

Tony pops his faceplate and slides the mint under his tongue. It actually does help.

Around about that time a half dozen short people burst through the entryway, chattering excitedly to themselves in something that Tony guesses is probably old Gaelic. Really old Gaelic.

"Ah," Loki says. "Brownies."

The Brownies all kind of look like Dobby the House Elf, but they aren't wearing pillowcases or tea towels or anything like that (_Tony's seen all the movies. Thor is a fan_). Instead, they seem to have somehow spun robes out of shadows, like, real shadows. Tony gets the feeling that if he tried to touch the cloth, there would be nothing there.

Loki is giving orders in the language that the Brownies speak, so Tony concentrates on accessing zir magic, focusing on understanding what's being said. Tuning into Loki's Allspeak is tricky, like finding a radio station that's almost out of reach. It's garbled at first, but Tony finally does it, though only after tapping the side of his helmet like he's activating a comm link. (_Loki is right, he needs to work on the hand gestures._)

"_Is Herself and Her Boy staying long_?" The Lead Dobby is asking. (_Head Dobby? Dobby-In-Charge? Supreme Brownie_?)

"_I shall be gone once the ritual challenge is done_," Loki answers. The Brownies seem disappointed by that, but Loki is unmoved, gesturing imperiously down the long hall. The Brownies take the hint and escort them to the royal apartments, all the while chattering about how clean they've kept everything and what a wonderful feast they're going to cook to celebrate Herself having a new Her Boy.

Tony raises a brow once they're alone. "'Herself?'"

Loki stays in female form, and will the entire time they're in Álfheim. It's too dangerous to risk revealing zir true identity here, ze's explained. There are magical reasons that Tony hasn't taken the time to understand. (_Yet. He will one day. But for now, he's focused on winning the consort's ritual challenge._)

Loki sneers. "Mab is known for her taste in promising young magicians. Her apprentices rarely live up to their purported talents." The sneer becomes a feral grin. "Save, of course, for Loki Silvertongue. Though I rather think that's more to do with how my apprenticeship ended, than any deficiency in Mab's previous companions."

"You took her crown," Tony says, watching Loki's face.

"Before she could take my magic from me, yes," Loki agrees, idly stroking zir chin. "I took her crown. And her life. Magic, throne, titles, her very face became mine. I was the last 'Her Boy.'" Ze blinks rapidly, looking at Tony, zir face softening. "Before you, of course."

Tony uses magic to take his suit off, sending it to hang itself on the armor stand the Brownies thoughtfully put in a corner of the room. His tattoos glow a brilliant blue, making him seem a part of the palace, the light refracting through carved prisms of ice, sending rainbows skittering across the floor. Without the suit, Tony is cold. The temperature doesn't really bother him, not now that he's connected to Loki by magic and blood and whatever the hell else, but he'd still rather be warm. He searches out the bedroom, smiling when he finds a raised platform heaped with luxurious furs. He doesn't know what kind of fur it is, and doesn't care, he sets right to making himself a nest.

"I'll be the real last 'Her Boy,'" Tony calls back to Loki. Ze comes through the door, zir eyes intent on his. "And you'll be the first and only Mrs. Tony Stark," Tony goes on.

Before Loki can reply, there's a great ringing peal of sound. It reverberates out from the palace walls, as if Underhill itself is the bell.

"Faerie hears your words," Loki says.

"My words were truly spoken," Tony replies. He follows that with, "Wait, what the fuck?"

(_Sometimes, despite where he is and who he's with, when they're just being Tony and Loki, he forgets that they aren't just two good looking people who have a lot of great sex and a mutual appreciation for taking things apart. He forgets they aren't just Snowflake and Brightstar, but the Liesmith and the Ironsmith. Loki is a straight up fairy tale creature, ze's not from the real world, and Tony's starting to think that he isn't either. Not anymore. Maybe he never was. Maybe he's another misplaced Frost Giant baby. It would explain a hell of a lot._)

Loki's staring at Tony like Tony's one of their experiments, or maybe like he's a busted up suit and Loki's trying to figure out how to make the magic and science twist together well enough to squeeze out one last flight. "Interesting," ze says. "Only the rulers of the two Courts may command the force of Faerie, for it is the very fabric that holds Álfheim together. It seems that you are not just my consort. Faerie has spoken, and it sees you as my equal."

It's at that moment that a crown appears on Tony's head. It's heavy and it sets his tattoos to glowing again. The Crown of Night is shining against Loki's black hair, and Tony glances at the mirror that hangs across from the bed to see that he's wearing a more masculine version, all creepy black spires and glistening shards of ice.

"Did you do that?" Tony asks, but he already knows the answer.

Nevertheless, Loki smiles and says, "No. The Night Court itself has chosen you as its King."

Tony looks in the mirror, at the Jötunn marks that curve over his cheekbones to disappear into his beard, at the wicked crown on his head, at the black bodysuit he wears under his armor tracing over the muscles of his arms, at the arc reactor blazing out from his chest… and yeah, he kind of sees it. He looks like the kind of man who can call himself the King of Air and Darkness without anyone laughing.

"Do you mind?" he hears himself ask, lifting a finger to touch the crown. (_His crown_.)

"Mind?" Loki laughs. "After all I have done to bind us together, why should I be angry? I chose my threads and wove them well, and though warp and weft have taken on a shape I dreamt not of, I am pleased with the strength of the whole."

Tony snorts. "Oh yeah, Snowflake. Talk Shakespeare to me, baby."

**-l-**

After being crowned a king by a semi-sentient palace, Loki presenting Tony in the Court of Night is really anticlimactic.

Not a single Ice Elf shows up. The only living things Tony sees are the Brownies. (_He thinks the Dobby-In-Charge has a thing for him. He can tell. He has that kind of effect on women. Brownies. Dobbettes? (He's such an asshole. He's a (great and) terrible king)_).

Loki shrugs, voice echoing across the dark marble and silver walls that make up Underhill. "I told you. Since their wars with the Light Court, there are few Unseelie left, and what they want most is to be left to the worlds of illusion they have spun for themselves. They will all have felt you be crowned, and know there is no point in challenging you. Not when Faerie has spoken."

**-l-**

Being presented in Asgard is an entirely different thing.

Tony's been there before, of course. He knows what to do and the basic rules of etiquette. He's just never had a secret so large to keep from the Allfather.

Loki spends the two weeks before their scheduled audience with Odin hanging out with Hel in Niflheim. Hel has the power to 'see the truth that lies in every soul' or something, which means she's the best candidate to help Loki craft a spell that will keep Odin from realizing his adopted son is standing right in front of him. (T_ony's inability to completely quantify magic really pisses him off._)

The day arrives, and Loki wakes Tony up at the crack of dawn, and ze looks like an Ice Elf, with silver eyes and pointed ears. Ze is wearing a white dress with a long train that somehow seems to be made of snow, and the Crown of Night is both bright and dark against zir black hair. Tony smiles at zir and keeps up a stream of nonsense chatter that he's not really paying attention to as he gets dressed and goes to put on his latest suit. He's been busy in the weeks Loki was away. His new armor is a melding of the Iron Man and Cold Iron designs, a blending of technology and magic that Tony hasn't tested yet and isn't sure will work (_but there's no time like the present_).

Thor goes with them when the time comes, because of course he does, and Loki is so nervous about Odin seeing through them (_though ze'd never admit it_) that ze keeps repeating last minute instructions to Tony: Keep the faceplate of the suit down if at all possible. Don't think of Loki by name. Don't look either Frigga or Odin in the eyes. (T_hat's a sorcerer thing that Tony's just learned about. Don't look them in the eyes. Loki could have told him that years ago, the fucker._)

Asgard is just as golden and grandiose as he remembers, and the alien stars are just as intimidating, swirling low overhead. Last time he was here, Tony couldn't look up without his heart freezing in his chest, but this time Loki's cold hand in his makes it all a little easier. (T_hey've both fallen through space, and Tony thinks on some level he'll always hate the feel of it pressing down on him, but they both survived and that's something else, fuck you universe, with your stars and your silence._)

They reach the main hall where Odin tends to hang out on his throne, some giant stone monstrosity with a weird ass name (_everything has a name in Asgard_) and some herald guy whose name Tony can never remember stops them at the doors, then bangs his staff against the ground to announce them.

"Presenting Thor the Thunderer of the Aesir, Son of Odin, Crown Prince of Asgard and Avenger of Midgard."

Thor claps Tony on the shoulder, making him stagger forward a step, and then strolls down the red carpet that leads to the throne, stopping at the end to kneel before Odin, head bowed.

Another whack of the staff echoes against stone. "Presenting Mab Wyrdweaver of the Tuatha De Danaan, Daughter of Dana, Queen of Air and Darkness and Avenger of Midgard."

Loki squeezes Tony's hand, then squares zir shoulders and sweeps down the hall, the train of zir gown whispering against the floor. Once ze reaches the throne, ze glides smoothly into a graceful curtsy, arms curved and skirts spread in a way that makes Tony think of birds. Loki is really getting zir Lord of the Rings on.

Then it's his turn. "Presenting Tony Ironsmith of the Humans, Son of Stark, called the Brightstar, King of Air and Darkness, and Avenger of Midgard."

Tony clanks his way into the hall, his entrance much less graceful than Loki's, or even Thor's. The armor isn't really made for court processions, and apparently flying to the end of the hall is rude (_he'd found that out last time_), so it takes him a few awkward minutes of stomping and suppressing the urge to say Fe Fie Fo Fum before he reaches Odin and is able to kneel, one fist against the floor in his standard landing pose.

There is a beat of silence, and then Odin stands. "You are bigger than when I last saw you, Tony Ironsmith," Old One-Eye says, his tone musing. "Not in body, but in spirit. Shining."

He strokes his beard and Tony bites his tongue to stop himself from making fifteen different snappy comebacks. Odin doesn't appreciate it. (_He'd found that out last time too, though he had eventually annoyed the god into letting Tony see Loki, so maybe that was a win?_)

Odin moves to Lok- Snowflake (_can't think zir name_) and tilts zir chin up with two fingers. He stares into Snowflake's eyes, and Tony holds his breath.

After a pause that has Tony calculating flight plans and escape routes, Odin says, "Ah. His brightness is of your doing, and not. You have made him Druid and placed a crown upon his head. But someone else… someone else has made him immortal. Someone has made of this man a god."

Snowflake looks up defiantly, and there is something, some micro expression in the twist of zir lips and the flash of zir silver eyes that tells Tony that things aren't going according to plan. They're going better. Odin's said something that Snowflake can use, something ze can tie into one of those crazy Celtic knots and pull tight to hold the whole plan together.

And also, apparently Tony is a god now? (_Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, god, king, philanthropist._)

He's glad the face plate of the helmet is down, and wonders if Snowflake told him to keep it down just in case he found out about his godhood this way. Ze has some serious explaining to do. (_Snowflake, Tony knows, always operates on the assumption that what ze wants will be denied, and so goes about getting what ze wants in the sneakiest way possible. So yeah, Tony's a little pissed to be messed with without being asked first, but he's not going to pretend he wouldn't have said yes if someone had bothered to ask him._)

Snowflake doesn't even glance at Tony, and Tony keeps still, still kneeling because he's not allowed to get up until Odin tells them all to rise.

"Many of the Tuatha De Danaan began life as humans," Snowflake says, and Tony has no idea what a Tuatha Doop Doodah is, and JARVIS can't connect to the internet from Asgard, to Tony's everlasting annoyance. "Through wisdom and learning was their power acquired. Tony is one of the wisest and most learned of the humans on Midgard. So yes. I made him Druid. I gave him power. The Night Court recognized him as its King. But long life… Long life was granted by Hel. He bears her blessing on his brow."

Odin looks taken aback at this, and Tony thinks, _Huh, so that was a bigger deal than I thought._ And then, _Oh goddamit Loki, you had Hel make me immortal years ago and did the tattoo thing now so that you wouldn't have to tell me about it. Idiot._

Odin looks toward him sharply, his brow wrinkled, and Tony swallows, realizing he thought Snowflake's name. He starts thinking hard about an old memory, remembering what it felt like to have Loki throw him through a window, what Loki looked like leading the invasion of Chitauri, and then Loki's prison. He imagines a giant wolf, not how Fenrir actually looks, but more like that three headed dog from Harry Potter, and tries to project a feeling of unease. He is only here because his soon to be wife asked him to do this and his own immortality is riding on it. H_e is only here because his soon to be wife asked him to do this and his own immortality is riding on it._

Odin turns back to Snowflake, and Tony closes his eyes in relief.

"Hel wishes you to help her brother in exchange for the life she has given your Ironsmith," Odin intones, as if now that he's figured it out there's no other explanation. (_And Tony sees how clever this is, how good Snowflake is at this. Ze's let Odin come to this conclusion, the best lie, without lying at all. Because outright lying to Odin would be too dangerous, but this, this game is a way to fool him. The only way to fool him._)

Snowflake inclines her head. "We seek the release of Fenrir Wolfwalker. Banish him to Midgard and bind him to my service. He will be an Avenger. Still punished for his crime, but my debt is paid."

Tony raises his chin, looking at Odin, speaking in the mechanized tone of the suit's modulator. "And just think how much more it'll piss Loki off, for his son to be forced to protect the same realm that Loki wanted to destroy."

Odin turns to look at him again, frowning because speaking when Odin hasn't asked you to is a big no no, but fuck it. Tony raises his head so that the mask of the suit seems to be meeting Odin's gaze, but he turns his eyes to the side to avoid any sorcerous mind whammies. (_He's starting to feel like Odin is the god version of Fury, and wonders if maybe Fury is Odin's avatar, the way Lo- Snowflake is always claiming that Tony is zirs. It's more than just the one eye thing, seriously._)

Without breaking his gaze (_surprisingly intense for only having one eye_) on Tony, Odin asks, "What say you to this, Thor?"

Thor raises his head, where he's been kneeling quietly the whole time. And the big guy looks solemn and almost-but-not-quite tearful when he says, "Fenrir's only true crime is loving his father, and that is not something I would see him punished for, for there has never been enough love in Loki's life. But if he must be punished, let it be in a way that he may be of use, and learn. Let him fight with me and my companions on Midgard, that it may make of him a better man, as it has done me."

And wow, Tony knows that Thor isn't dumb, but it's moments like this that really bring it home. He turns his head so that he can see Snowflake, and yeah, her face is really blank. Like, Coulson levels of blank.

Which means that Thor's words just struck like lightning to the heart.

Odin gives them all one last hard stare, and then he goes back to his giant ass chair, and thumps his spear (_it has a funny name too. Seriously, everything in Asgard has a name_). "Let it be known that Fenrir Lokison is to be banished to Midgard, to serve as one of its Avengers. And he shall be bound by the word of Tony Ironsmith, the newest of the Tuatha De Danaan. Whatsoever the Ironsmith requires, Fenrir shall do. Such is the word of the Allfather."

Tony has just enough time to think, Wait, what? And then Odin is pointing at him with his spear, and something hits Tony in the chest, knocking him onto his back while his HUD displays flash red and JARVIS screams warnings in his ear.

Then everything goes black.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes:<strong>

As I said in a previous note, I lost the original last two sections of this story. At this point enough time has passed that rewriting doesn't make me want to beat my head against a wall, but I've also forgotten a lot of my original intention for the ending so... this direction is shiny and new and may be shorter/longer that the proposed four chapters, and make take a lot of time to finish, or not a lot of time. I am a creature of whimsy.

I wanted Alfheim to have it's own version of the "Odin Force," which is where Faerie comes in. Calling it "Faerie" and the concept of being "crowned by Faerie" is shamelessly lifted from the _Merry Gentry_ books by Laurell K. Hamilton.


	4. Chapter 4

When Tony wakes up, he's in his bed, and there is a lanky man with dark hair lying next to him.

The man is not Loki, at least not in any form that Tony recognizes. Tony groans. He has a splitting headache and the taste of ozone in his mouth, and for a horrifying minute he thinks he's hung over and he's done something that is going to end in someone's death, and he's not sure whose guts will be used to decorate Loki's mage staff.

But then the man rolls to face Tony and smiles a wolfish grin. "Step-Mother! You're awake!"

Tony blinks. Tries to speak, feels like he's going to vomit, swallows, and clears his throat.

The man lying next to him – on top of the covers, while Tony himself is beneath them – appears young, in his late twenties. He is tall and lean, with dark hair that springs around his head in a riot of curls and a pointed goatee that makes him look like either a Disney villain or an extra from _The Three Musketeers._ He projects an air of joy and wild, unadulterated freedom, making Tony think of tigers, and the ocean, and _The Black Pearl_. (_What? Tony likes pirate movies, and the man looks like Johnny Depp, at least a little._)

"Fenrir?" Tony manages to get his throat working at last.

"Aye," Loki's son answers, sitting up. He's dressed in black leathers very similar to Loki's Asgardian getup, though Fenrir's outfit is accented in shades of grey and light blue. "I had forgotten that you would not know my face in this form, for all the time you have spent sitting upon my back, teaching me of your world."

Tony's not quite up to coming up with a witty response to that, so he says only, "Loki?"

Fenrir's expression takes on an aspect of hero worship that makes Tony's lips twitch. "Father was quite angry that Odin was so inelegant in placing his _geas_ upon the pair of us. I, too, fell faint at the force of the spell and was abed until this very morn. Upon my waking, Hel informed me that Father is wearing your face and tending to your empire, lest any of your enemies discover your weakness, and I am to guard you until you are well. She left soon after, to guide the souls of the dead, as is her duty."

"Hm." Tony grunts, scrubbing a hand over his face. He feels like he went on a six day bender and then crashed the suit into a brick wall. Tracing his fingertips over the tattoos on his face, he tries to summon the energy to be curious about what exactly Odin did. Or at least to get up and use the bathroom.

"My father loves you very much," Fenrir says, apropos of nothing. Tony opens his eyes, and finds Fenrir still smiling like a fool. But the smile does not reach his eyes. No, those lupine eyes are cool and flat, filled with loyalty and a malice older than the world of man. "If you hurt him, I will eat you," Fenrir goes on.

There is a strained silence between them, the moment drawn out like a worn guitar string. (_Not that Tony's ever been much of a musician._)

Then Fenrir shakes his mane of curls, and seems the jolly idiot once more. "Would you like some food? Uncle Thor has taught me to prepare the traditional dish of Pop Tart! It is most delicious!"

Getting up and stumbling toward the kitchen, Tony can't help but wonder if the mask of joviality Fenrir wears has anything to do with the origin of the phrase a wolf in sheep's clothing.

**-l-**

Fenrir follows Tony around the penthouse, and Tony ignores him, devoting his attention to reading the Wikipedia page on the Tuatha De Danaan and seeing yeah, he probably is one if the internet is even remotely accurate. The name means Tribe of the Gods and they were worshipped by the Irish, most of them probably from Álfheim, but in Odin's audience chamber Loki had said that a few, a few were humans (_Druids_) who were more powerful and wise and rose up somehow, and part of Tony wonders if he even counts as a scientist anymore or if now he's a sorcerer.

(_And doesn't that just piss him off. Or does it? He honestly doesn't know._)

He looks up from his tablet and squints at Fenrir, who is doing that same freaky thing that Natasha does where she stares without staring.

"So," Tony says. "Tuatha De Danaan. Go."

Fenrir turns his head almost lazily and raises one eyebrow, and wow he really looks like Loki in that moment and it makes Tony feel weird.

"Is Father making you test my recall?" Fenrir asks. "I have already assured him that the extended time spent in my wolf form has done me no lasting harm." He's smiling, but Tony's not buying it, Loki's always saying that Natasha reminds zir of Fenrir, so Tony treats his almost-step-son like Natasha to the second power. That is to say, with deep suspicion for every word and gesture, but an underlying trust that Fenrir won't actually harm Tony.

Much.

Tony rolls his eyes. "I haven't had enough coffee for this song and dance. Just tell me, and – " _we'll banter afterwards_ is what he was going to say, but the minute he makes his demand, Fenrir sits up straight and starts talking in a strangled voice, his jaw tensed like he wants to shut it and can't.

"The Tuatha De Danaan rule Álfheim and Vanaheim just as the Aesir rule Asgard. They once had portals to Midgard, before the Allfather sealed the way, and were worshipped, just as we were. Some few, a very few, were human once, risen to a higher plane through merit or villainy."

Finished with his recitation, Fenrir stops. Tony stares.

"What – " he starts, but Fenrir shakes his shaggy head, slumping down into the sofa cushions.

"It is what Odin did to us," the young man (_and yeah Tony knows Fenrir is centuries older than him, but fuck it, right now Fenrir looks and sounds and feels so very, very young and Tony might be having a paternal impulse, it's really uncomfortable_) explains. "I am unchained, and yet chains bind me still. A _geas_ holds us together, you and I. A thread of Odin's making. Any order you give, I must obey, and should you die, I will soon follow, my spirit dragged from my body by its anchoring to yours. You are my prison, Tony Ironsmith."

There's no flash of the jolly idiot now. Just the wolf and the malice and the quite voice, the little boy inside the man who loves his father too much. (_So much it hurts._)

Tony feels sick. His knuckles are white where he grips his tablet, and he's vaguely glad that he didn't get super strength along with all his other new goodies, because he's pretty sure he'd have torn something important in half by now. "Shit," he says. Then more vehemently, "Fuck." (_All he can see is the inside of a cave._)

"Indeed," Fenrir agrees, and it's so Loki that Tony cracks a grin that feels like a wound.

"I won't use it. I won't abuse it," Tony promises. (_But Odin can't have known that. Already his mind is spinning with all the terrible orders he could give. Could give but won't, but now there's a temptation, if he didn't love Loki, if he wasn't trying to be a good man, if Pepper and Steve wouldn't look at him with sad puppy eyes_…)

For once, Fenrir is not smiling. He looks solemnly at Tony and Tony remembers afternoons spent sprawled on a furry back, talking about whatever passed through his head and idly scratching at ears, and dammit it seems like Fenrir wormed his way into Tony's heart without Tony noticing. (_So like Loki._)

"I believe you will try," Fenrir says in answer to Tony's promise.

Tony hates all the things.

**-l-**

Loki arrives home, shedding Tony's form and mannerisms and donning the face of Lori Silverton as she steps out of the elevator. Natasha is with her, unsurprised at the transformation, for Natasha has an impressive knack of always being able to tell Tony and Loki apart, even when Loki wears Tony's face. (_Loki hasn't asked how. She wants to believe it's magic._)

The two pad quietly into the sunken living room, and find Tony and Fenrir sprawled on the floor, surrounded by the remains of a feast, their eyes glued to the massive television. They are watching _Once Upon a Time_, and Loki can't help the snarl that twists her lips. "You're allowing him to watch this nonsense?" she demands of her Tony, hands on hips.

Tony starts and looks guiltily over his shoulder, but Fenrir (_who no doubt sensed their presence even before the elevator reached the proper floor_) doesn't move, eyes focused on the screen where Little Red Riding Hood has just realized that she is in fact the Big Bad Wolf and she has eaten her lover.

Fenrir presses his hands to his mouth, and Loki seethes, remembering a small boy and a small voice saying, I_s it true, Father? Am I a monster?_

At the time, Loki had answered, _No more than I._

Tony's smirking, but perhaps he catches something in Loki's face, for he stands and comes to embrace her, kissing her neck. "What's up, princess?"

Loki tightens her lips, tries to remember that Fenrir is grown and well able to see to his own affairs, but he is still her son. She presses her cheek to Tony's, reveling in the thought of their marks touching, and says only, "I thought to bring Natasha to meet Fenrir."

Fenrir stands at that, his demeanor changing when he sees Natasha. He smiles, gallant and charming, and bows low. "My lady. I have heard much of your prowess. You are a particular favorite of my sister's." He cuts his eyes at Loki. "And my father's."

Natasha notices, of course she does. (_Foolish, foolish Fenrir. You play a dangerous game. Hel is the child of Loki's mind, but Fenrir is the child of her heart. The mortal legends say that Fenrir and Loki will be the end of all things, and maybe they are right._)

"Playing matchmaker?" Tony murmurs into Loki's ear as Fenrir and Natasha size one another up. "You do know she's sleeping with Clint?"

Loki shrugs one shoulder. "Sex and companionship do not necessarily equate to a relationship."

Tony goes stiff against her side, not for long, barely a second passing before he forces himself to relax, and Loki knows she has cut him. She is sorry, even as she revels in having the power to hurt him. (_I flay him alive without even knowing._)

"Do not be a fool, Brightstar," Loki whispers, pressing a kiss to the corner of Tony's mouth. "I was not speaking of us. You are my king, and always shall be."

"Your king, huh?" Tony says, and now he is stiff in an entirely different way.

Fenrir lifts his head, his nostrils flaring, and gives them a disgusted look. Graciously, he offers his arm to Natasha, and requests she show him the rest of the tower.

Natasha laughs, and Loki can see it, though she has no gift for prophecy, she knows that Natasha and Fenrir will come together, because while Natasha is _Loki's_, she is more _Fenrir's_, perhaps even his High Priestess, and they are as inevitable as death.

"I love you," Tony says once the elevator doors have closed behind the pair. He is already working one hand into the top of Loki's dress. "Sorry about… I don't know what that was. It's been a weird day."

"I forgive you," Loki says, even though what Tony apologizes for is not what made her angry, and even though she doesn't forgive him, not really, because Tony reminded Fenrir of the voices saying monster and she cannot offer the man the same words of comfort that she offered the boy.

Tony looks at her sharply, and then he pulls her close, so close it hurts, and the tattoos on his face blaze blue. "_One_," Tony says, a puff of breath against Loki's skin.

Her eyes widen when she realizes what he's just done. "You can count the lies."

Tony nods. "You going to keep lying about what's bothering you? Because I can count pretty high."

Loki laughs, her spirits suddenly lifting. She kisses him. (_Truly my king, truly my equal, not just words, not words at all._)

"Tell me," Tony demands, and it occurs to Loki that in a few hundred years her Ironsmith will be a god of immense power, perhaps even more powerful than she.

Loki trembles, but it is not with fear.


	5. Chapter 5

It doesn't take long to integrate Fenrir into the Avengers. Natasha is his avatar (_when he tries, when he strains, Tony can see it. It's a red line trailing from Fenrir's heart to Natasha's, unbreakable. There's a black one too, but this one is the one Odin made, and it ties Fenrir to Tony. When Tony looks at that one, he gets nauseous_) and Thor already knows and loves him to the point that Tony sometimes catches Fenrir hiding in the workshop, watching the door like he's expecting an attack any minute. (_He keeps __**hugging**__ me, Fenrir will whine, like that's somehow worse than being chained to the gates of the Palace of the Dead_.)

Steve is easily won over, and Fenrir is almost as good as Loki at playing people. Fenrir mentions being picked on when he was a child in Asgard, people calling him monster, not letting him join in the reindeer games because of his big shiny nose, and Steve is sold. Hell, Steve might beat up anyone who looks at Fenrir funny. They work out together and, weirdly enough, play fetch with Steve's shield. Steve jokes he's always wanted a dog, and Fenrir looks him up and down in a way that always makes Steve blush and says, "Woof."

Surprisingly, (or maybe not) the Hulk takes to Fenrir with glowing enthusiasm. Fenrir transforms during a training exercise, and Hulk looks at him and screams "Puppy!" and the rest is history. Bruce takes a little longer, but Fenrir is relentless, following Bruce around the tower like he actually is a puppy, and then one day they have an intense conversation that Tony isn't privy to (_maybe Fenrir throws around the word 'monster,' it worked on Steve, after all_) and after that, whenever Bruce is pissed and maybe about to lose it, he goes to stand by Fenrir and Fenrir leans into his side and sometimes there's whispering and Tony really doesn't want to know. (_Except for how he really, really does. Also, is Darcy in on that? Because that could be. Yeah._)

But anyway, all that happens, and it's all great, and Tony is happy, and Loki is happy, and Pep has her baby, so Pep is happy and Happy is ecstatic, and if Hawkeye is avoiding Fenrir, well, whatever, he's a spy, who knows how his mind works.

Then of course, Hawk is in the kitchen one day, and Tony doesn't know why it's today, why it wasn't when Fenrir first joined them (_maybe it's the way Fenrir has an arm around Natasha, and she actually lets him, doesn't shrug him away_) but Hawk frowns and snaps out some remark about Loki and the apple not falling far from the tree (_and Tony feels sick, because of course Clint still hates Loki, Tony never expected any different, but this just rubs Tony's face in what an awful, awful person he really is_) and Fenrir goes still, absolutely predator still, and he has that look in his eye that says _ages_ and _malice_.

_Oh fuck_, Tony thinks, eyes darting between Clint and Fenrir. Natasha has gone still too, and her eyes are blue and cold, her face completely blank. Tony thinks that means that she's staying out of this, letting the boys sort it out between themselves, but it's Natasha so there's really no telling.

Fenrir can't conjure, not like Loki can, so he doesn't summon an apple. No, he slinks across the kitchen and plucks one from the bowl on the counter, and somehow that's worse, not the least because it closes the distance between him and Hawkeye.

"You speak of apples and fathers," Fenrir says, his voice dropping, turning into a sibilant hiss that makes Tony's spine tingle. Fenrir opens his mouth to bite the apple, and Tony sees that his tongue has turned black, and it's forked, like a snake's. "There is a story mortals tell," Fenrir goes on, and now he's started to sway lightly from side to side, eyes unblinking. It's hypnotic, and creepy, and Tony sways with him.

"There is a story mortals tell," Fenrir repeats, taking a step closer to Hawk, "that also speaks of fathers and apples. They were golden apples. The apples of knowledge. They grew on a tree in a garden, a garden protected by the gods, where there was no pain and no death. No self-awareness either, but the mortals always leave that part out."

Fenrir takes another step forward, and Clint takes a step back, and Tony almost laughs because it looks like they're doing some kind of swaying cobra tango across the kitchen, eyes locked and an apple between them, clutched in Fenrir's fingers.

"A mortal man and a mortal woman lived in the garden, this so called paradise without sin, and their god promised they could stay there forever, so long as they did not eat the golden apples. But there was a serpent in the garden, wasn't there?"

"Yes," Hawk whispers, so soft that Tony doesn't hear him, just sees his lips move.

Fenrir smiles, his teeth turned into fangs, long and needle sharp, dripping poison. "I am not just a wolf, you know. I have other forms. A stag. A crow. A horse. And…" He twists his neck, a loud crack echoing in the silence as his spine elongates, scales spreading over his face. His eyes burn red, the same shade as Loki's in Frost Giant form. "I am a serpent," Fenrir says. "I am the World Snake. I am the Tempter of Eve, he who goaded her into eating the forbidden fruit because it is in my nature and I thought she deserved _more_. I am chaos and freedom and one day, perhaps, I shall be the end of all things, but for now I am an Avenger, and most of all I am Fenrir Lokison, and for that I will never apologize, least of all to you."

With that, Fenrir completes his transformation, becoming a snake as big around as sewer pipe. He coils and arches his body up, his tongue flickering in the air, and then he slithers from the room with the sound of scales on stone, and seriously, seriously, it's Tony Stark and the Big Fucking Snake in the Kitchen up in here, and Tony really wants to lay down some rules about warning a guy and no eating the Avengers, but then he'd have to use the _geas_ and Odin can just go eat a big bag of dicks.

The apple, one bite missing, rolls across the floor to rest against Clint's foot.

"Holy shit," Tony squeaks. He sounds like Mickey Mouse.

Natasha saunters out after Fenrir, and Tony suddenly wonders if she ever hangs out with him in animal form, like, does she use his coils as a hammock like that one Disney movie? (_He kind of hopes she doesn't sit on his back and rub his ears in wolf form, because that kind of felt like a special Tony-and-Fenrir-are-Bros time, and wow, huh, did not realize he'd missed that_.)

Clint picks up the apple and starts laughing like a crazy person.

**-l-**

The next day Tony walks in on Clint and Fenrir in Clint's firing range, Fenrir tossing apples into the air and Clint shooting them, and yes, it is official, everyone but Tony is crazy.


	6. Chapter 6

Time passes in fits and starts, hours of peaceful tinkering in the lab punctuated with various explosions, and yeah, let's face it, Tony's life was pretty much like that before he became Iron Man, so he's got no cause to complain. He's pretty happy actually. Everyone is getting along, Loki is amazing, and Fenrir and Tony do the Tony-Sitting-On-Fenrir's-Giant-Dog-Back thing, because Tony mentioned that they could, you know, if Fenrir wanted. If he missed it or something.

Not that it's all robots and roses. They're still the Avengers, and they still have enemies, and while Tony is weirdly good at being in a relationship with Loki, he's still got the emotional intelligence of a twelve year old on his best days. Which is why, for some reason, he thinks that Loki will really like _Frozen_, so he rents out an entire IMAX theatre (_because if you're going to make a romantic gesture, go big or go home, right?_) and takes Loki to see it.

It turns out that Loki does not like _Frozen_. At all. In fact, it is the triggeriest thing to ever trigger. Tony realizes right away that he's made a terrible mistake by the stiff way Loki sits in zir chair, but Loki is stubborn and refuses to admit defeat to a _child's animated film_ of all things, so they make it halfway through before Loki has some kind of psychotic break and succumbs to a bout of insanity the likes of which Tony hasn't seen from zir since the pre-Lori days. (_Loki is a chaos god, and Tony often wonders if periods of temporary insanity aren't part and parcel of that. Is Loki a chaos god because ze's unstable, or is ze unstable because ze's a chaos god?_)

Loki's eyes are wild, wide and unseeing, and rapidly bleeding red. Ze stares down at zir hands as they turn blue, and Tony immediately wraps himself around his soon to be spouse, locking arms and legs in a desperate embrace. Loki is radiating cold, and Tony's tattoos are glowing, though Tony isn't sure if it's in reaction to his stress or Loki's. They're doing something to keep him from succumbing to the Ice Touch, Tony knows that much, because Loki doesn't recognize him right now, and if Tony were anyone else, his skin would be turning black. On the screen, Elsa is warbling _Let it go_, _Let it go_, and in the seats, Tony is thinking _Just hang on_, _Just hang on_, and Loki starts trying to scratch zir own face off.

Tony still isn't as strong as Loki, never will be, and he wishes desperately for the suit to even things out as he wrestles Loki's hands away from zir face. Loki is crying, and the tears are freezing on zir cheeks, and ze's shifting rapidly back and forth between zir typical male and female forms, and that makes zir even harder to hang onto.

And then Tony realizes, duh, _he's magic now_. He lets Loki go for a split second and makes a gesture like he's putting on the suitcase suit, and in an instant his latest armor - the one laced with magic symbols - has appeared and is sliding into place.

As soon as the faceplate snaps down, he wraps Loki back up and blasts through the roof, taking them up and out. He's murmuring soothing nonsense, and telling Loki he loves zir, all the while cursing himself. He is such fucking bad husband material. This is worse than the time with Pepper and the strawberries.

He flies Loki to their New York mansion instead of back to Avengers Tower, because he knows that Loki won't want anyone (_Natasha and Fenrir_) to see zir like this. Loki fights and yowls like an angry cat the whole way there, but Tony refuses to drop zir, and by the time they land on the massive back lawn ze has been reduced to shaking, bared teeth, and crazy eyes.

"Loki? Kitten?" Tony says experimentally, flipping the faceplate up. (_Probably not smart to call zir Snowflake right now._) He keeps a firm grip on Loki's arms. Loki shifts into male form (_probably feels safer when ze towers over Tony_) and stays that way, red eyes locked on Tony's face.

Loki blinks. And then, softly, "My king?"

Tony says, "Yes" and "Always" and then he's leaning up to kiss Loki, and getting his lip cut open on Loki's pointed Frost Giant teeth. Loki licks the blood away, and it seems to help somehow, making zir more aware. Abruptly, ze sags.

"Precious things are so easy to crush," Loki whispers, and Tony swallows back a sob of his own.

"I'm sorry," he chokes out. "I didn't think, I'm an idiot and you deserve so much better, but I'm selfish and I love you so I really hope you'll forgive me. Loki. Loki, Loki, _Loki_."

Loki gives a faint smile at that. (_Tony can't afford to say Loki's name much, can't risk making it habit and slipping up, so each time he does it is a gift, of sorts._) "There is nothing to forgive. You are my own: my priest, my druid, and my king, and I love you still. I especially love that you can render me thus, but refrain from doing it purposefully."

And that's weird, and fucked up, but it makes Tony feel better, and it works for them, so whatever, he's taking Loki inside and getting in the hot tub, and in the morning he's buying every theater in NYC and banning _Frozen_.

What? He is not prepared to be reasonable about Loki, and he's rich enough to get away with it. (_Does he have enough money to buy Disney? It's something to consider._)

**-l-**

Their wedding day dawns perfect and sunny and Tony is about to twitch out of his tux waiting for someone to attack or something to blow up or Loki to leave him at the altar. Superheroes aren't allowed to have normal weddings. He knows, he watches movies. (_And hey there's an idea for next Halloween. He and Loki should be The Incredibles. Fenrir and Natasha can be the two kids, and they can borrow Pep's baby to complete the picture._)

Speaking of Pep and her baby, they come in the room and seem to fix Tony with identical looks of fond exasperation. Okay well, the baby is just kind of blowing spit bubbles from her place in Pep's arms, but. It counts.

"Hey, how's my little Salt Shaker?" Tony asks with a bright smile, immediately going into deflection mode.

Pepper rolls her eyes, but her lips are tilting up. Her light blue bridesmaid dress goes great with her skin and hair. "Tony, for the last time, her name is Salena."

"Boring," Tony responds, fidgeting with his cufflinks. He wanted them to get married in their armor, but the world still doesn't know that Lori Silverton is Cold Iron, and Loki wants to keep it that way as long as possible. (_Ze's always going on about not showing daggers to the one you intend to kill with it, blah blah blah_).

"It's going to be okay, Tony," Pepper says, with her creepy Pepper Power of seeing through his bullshit. "You already live together, she's already your beneficiary in the event of your death, and you're really happy with her. Happy in a way I've never seen you before. Today isn't going to change all that. It's just making a grand statement to the world about how good you are together."

Ah, another Pepper Power. Tony feels calmer. "I do like grand statements."

Pepper smiles at him, and for a second, it's like the old days, drooling baby notwithstanding. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"That will be all, Mrs. Hogan," Tony says, just to tweak her tail.

"It's still Ms. Potts," Pepper corrects him, like she always does. "Now come on, let's go get you married."

**-l-**

The ceremony goes off without a hitch. They have it on the roof of the tower to make security easier, and because it's a place of significance for them. Rhodey and Bruce are Tony's Best Men, and Steve and Clint, in full battle regalia, are combination security and groomsmen. (_Tony may have spent some time whining about how they get to wear their uniforms but Tony can't wear his armor until Hel threatened to touch him with the Hand of Death._) Pepper, Jane, Darcy, and Natasha are bridesmaids, and Hel, glamoured into looking fully human, is Lori's magically appearing sister Helena Silverton, and the Maid of Honor.

Fenrir, looking dashing in in a tux with his hair tied back, walks Loki down the aisle. Just before placing Loki's hands in Tony's, he growls and snaps his teeth. Tony barely notices.

Loki has eschewed wearing white, and is instead wearing a silver dress that seems to have somehow been woven from fog and shadow. Ze looks like the queen ze is, the Crown of Night on zir brow, and a train on the dress that stretches all the way from one end of the roof to the other.

"My friends!" Thor booms, his hands spread wide. He's wearing his formal Asgardian getup, with a red cloak and a gold circlet, having been given the honor of presiding over the ceremony. As the Prince of Asgard, he's the only one besides Odin who can, apparently, what with Tony and Loki being the rulers of the Unseelie. "Today is a glorious day!"

The vows pass by Tony in a blur. He's already made his vows. He already gave himself to Loki, has Loki's mark etched into his very soul. It's not just tattoos on his skin, it's magic and science and knowing when Loki is lying and getting JARVIS to buy that weird toothpaste that tastes like bubblegum because Loki finds the phrase "cool mint" offensive for some inexplicable reason. It's Fenrir wagging his tail and Hel and her creepy hood and her half joking invitations to visit her realm permanently. It's more than standing here and saying "I do." (_Pep was right. This really doesn't change anything._)

Before he knows it, their hands have been fastened together with three silken cords (_blue for intelligence, silver for magic, and gold for eternity_) and they're drinking wine from a golden chalice. They kiss, and Thor presents them as Lord and Lady Stark. Tony bites his tongue on a comment about everyone being welcome in Winterfell for a feast.

Then Loki curtsies and there's a sense of pressure, a kind of destiny in the air. "My king," ze murmurs. "Chosen for me by Faerie."

Tony kneels across from zir and cups zir cheeks, the silk cords around their wrists forcing zir to lay zir hands atop his. "My queen," Tony answers, the words coming out of his mouth as if spoken by someone else. "She who thrice marked me as an equal. Never should your head be lower than mine."

A sound like a gong rips through the air, relieving the pressure around them and making Tony's ears pop. Those not in on Lori Silverton's (_quote_) real (_unquote_) identity start freaking the fuck out.

Loki tosses zir head back and laughs.

**-l-**

Of course, that night, when Happy and Pepper and Little Salt Shaker are driving them to the pier to get on the cruise ship Tony chartered for their honeymoon, six black SUVs materialize out of nowhere and men in combat gear start boiling out of the surrounding building like ants and Tony doesn't even know what happens, but suddenly he's not in the car anymore and his eyes are watering and he can't quite get his legs to work. He doesn't know where Happy is, but someone is forcing Pep into one of the SUVs and Loki is screaming zir head off like ze isn't hell on wheels, so ze's probably angling to be taken with Pep as a 'helpless' hostage.

Someone puts a bag over Tony's head just as he yells, "I knew it!"

Superheroes don't get to have normal weddings.


	7. Chapter 7

When Tony wakes up, he's strapped to a freestanding metal frame. (_Not exactly what he had in mind for his honeymoon, unless Loki is wandering around in a leather catsuit somewhere_.) His hands are shackled by his sides and his ankles are held down by a metal bar locked across them. There's even a wide metal band around his neck to keep him from being able to lean forward, or maybe to prevent him headbutting anyone.

Well, shit. He can't do magic if he can't move. (_Loki says it comes down to belief. Tony's used to making the impossible possible with a wave of his hand, but apparently being able to do it with just his mind is a stretch, even for his ego. Pepper would never believe it_.)

_Oh shit, Pepper, Loki, Salt Shaker!_

Tony starts to struggle against his bonds, testing them. He's stronger now, stronger than a normal man - not Loki levels of strength, but still, maybe it will be enough.

It's not. The bonds hold, and Tony forces himself to be still and think. He remembers seeing Pep and Salt Shaker forced into a SUV, and Loki was playing possum, so ze's probably with them. So they're fine. Loki won't let anything happen to Pep or Salt Shaker. Especially Salt Shaker. Tony and Loki are Salt Shaker's (_literal_) god parents, and even if they weren't, Loki has a thing about kids. Loki will fuck so much shit up before so much as a dust mote touches Salt Shaker's head. So. Okay then. One worry down.

There are no lights. He has no idea how big the room is, or if he's even in a room as opposed to say, a cave. (_Fuck, fuck, don't think about caves_.) Except... air conditioning, so okay, probably a building. (_Thank fuck it's not a cave._)

He has no idea who attacked and took them. Some leftovers from The Mandarin? Whatever the Ten Rings has metamorphosed into? No idea.

Okay, not the problem of the moment. He'll figure it out later, after he's kicked their collective ass.

Right now he just has to get himself untied, figure out where he is, and get the hell out. Which really. Getting untied is the only major obstacle. He can magic himself into one of his suits as soon as he can move his arms. So he just needs to talk them into untying him, and he's home free.

Before he can get much farther in his brainstorming session, a bright light hums to life and Tony recoils from it, his eyes stinging.

"Hello, Mr. Stark," a voice says. Tony squints. As his vision clears, he can make out a built blond guy in a neat suit. He's standing in front of what looks like a two way mirror, used in interrogation rooms the world over. Tony wonders who's on the other side.

"You're not very original, are you?" Tony says, barely paying attention to what he's saying. His mouth is perfectly capable of running without him, and he's got better things to do than gossip with the villain of the day. He peers at the mirror, willing himself to see through it, reaching out, trying to find Loki.

Wait. He can still blink. Blinking is a gesture. Tony closes his eyes and tells himself that when he opens them again, it will be like one of his suit displays. He'll be able to see through the mirror and track Loki's magic and other useful things.

It works. (_Of course it does, he's a genius_.) When he opens his eyes, the mirror is more like fog muffling the room behind it than an actual barrier. Tony can see the lines of power or fate or whatever that connect him to Loki go straight through the mirror, to where Loki standing on the other side, still in Lori guise, and pointedly putting zirself between Pepper and the men with guns guarding the room. Pepper and Salt Shaker look okay, and Pep is focusing on the baby, trusting that Loki will protect them.

Tony stops rambling mid-sentence, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Loki meets his eyes, as if ze knows that Tony can see. (_Loki always knows._)

Tony's thoughts move at lightning speed. Loki's probably holding off on making a move because ze doesn't want Pep and Salt Shaker in the line of fire. And Loki being Loki will want to stick around until they know who's behind this, which Tony doesn't necessarily disagree with but… Pep and Salt Shaker.

Okay. So it's down to two options. Loki is tied down by Pep's proximity, so either Tony needs to get free, or they need outside help.

Tony can see the _geas_ that ties him to Fenrir, flowing out of his chest and disappearing into the wall on the left. It would be easy enough for Tony to call him. All he has to do is say 'Fenrir, come here,' out loud, and Odin's _geas_ will compel Fenrir to come. Which… kind of makes Tony want to throw up, because Fenrir will have no idea what the fuck's going on or any choice in the matter. On the other hand, if Fenrir finds out that Loki was in trouble and Tony _didn't_ call, he will be so beyond pissed off it'll make Loki's episode with the Chitauri look like a tea party.

"Look," Tony interrupts whoever-the-hell-this-is, "what you have to realize is I've heard this spiel before. You want me to build things. _Everyone_ always wants me to build things. And it only ever goes one of two ways. One, I pretend to build what you want, and then I secretly build something else and destroy your entire base when I escape. Or two, I lay around being bored until the Avengers show up, and then they destroy your entire base when they rescue me. So really, it's in your best interest to just let me go."

Blondie smiles. "Ah, but the Avengers are far too busy to realize you're missing. As we speak, Captain America and Black Widow are on the run. Director Fury is dead. Thor Odinson has been called back to Asgard, and knows nothing of what happens here."

Tony meets Loki's eyes. Loki mouths, "_One, two, three_."

(_Loki always knows, and sometimes ze counts the lies around zir, leaving everyone but Tony confused about the numbers ze announces seemingly at random._)

Tony gives a jerk of his chin to show he understands. (_The highest they've ever gotten in one night was two hundred and six, and that was when they were attending a conference at the United Nations._)"That still leaves the Hulk, Fenrir, and Cold Iron."

"And," Villainous Windbag goes on, "we have your wife, your mistress, and what I'm willing to bet is your love child. Every time you defy us, we will kill one of them, starting with the child. But if you help us, we will let them go."

Lokie mouths, "_Four._"

Something inside Tony _snaps._

"Liar!" he snarls, spit flying from his lips, jerking against his bonds. They bruise him, chafe his skin, the band across his neck drawing blood, but Tony hardly notices. Rage fills him, a seething, clawing mass of it that burns so hot his bones must be turning black. In a moment he'll breathe fire, he'll explode, because, _because_... he can't even _words_, there are no words for this, there is nothing but a howling of wind in his ears and his vision is going white and his lips are pulling wide, wider than a human mouth should go -

Nevermind that they think Pep is his mistress, that they assume he's an adulteror, that they assume Salt Shaker is his baby. They threaten to touch what is _his_, his wife, his queen, _his people_! He won't stand for it.

He. Will. Not.

Abruptly the fire within Tony turns cold, so cold that it burns. The Crown of Night appears on his head, and his tattoos glow so brightly that they break the glamour that hides them from everyone but Loki and himself. Tony's interrogator reels back, screaming about mutants and calling for guards to enter the room, but Tony pays him no mind.

The world around Tony seems much _more_ than it ever has before. There is a clarity to everything, a sharpness, a simple progression of cause and effect to the universe that seems obvious. Tony can see the shadows between worlds, the threads that spin fate, and he wonders how he never noticed before.

A thin film of frost coats his body at his whim, and his bonds freeze, then shatter when Tony applies pressure.

The humans in the room with him are easy to kill. Too easy, really. It's no sport at all. (_He sees now, he sees, he understands why Loki called them ants, before. They are. They **are.**_) Tony flings around ice spears and balls of the energy that lies at his heart, just like a training exercise in the suit, and summons sheets of thick frost to protect him from the sprays of bullets being spat at him. When he is close enough he simply pulls his adversaries limb from limb, crushing bone and pulping flesh, red blood freezing where it touches his skin, painting him in a macabre crust.

Soon he is left only with his interrogator, who is cowering in a corner, as if that will save him. (_Apparently Tony is a god now. Pity this guy isn't praying to him._)

Tony picks up the man by his throat and looks into his eyes, reading the thoughts written there. He can see everything, every hope, every fear, every lie ever told. (_This man could have been Loki's, if he ever prayed, and so nothing of his mind can be closed to Tony, for they are that tightly bound._) Finally, Tony finishes ripping through the man's memories, and knows that Hel is drawing near. He smiles.

"Hail Hydra," Tony whispers, and unleashes the Ice Touch.

When Tony drops the man, he shatters like a statue carved from a glacier.

There is a small squeaking sound, and then the heave of someone vomiting. Tony turns to see that Loki and Pepper have entered the room now that there are no guards to stop them, and Loki is holding the baby while Pepper empties her stomach.

"Carnage too much for you?" Tony asks, not unkindly. His voice sounds as if he is wearing the Iron Man suit.

"Tony, what…?" Pepper mumbles, wiping at her chin. She looks at him, and there is some fear there, though whether it is _of_ him or _for_ him, Tony is unsure. "That was violent. I mean, that was really violent," Pepper babbles. "And your skin, your eyes… how?"

Tony looks down at himself and finds that he is blue. Not the beautiful, deep blue of a Frost Giant, but the silver blue of an Ice Elf. He reaches up to feel his ears. They are pointed.

Tony smiles, showing off sharp teeth. "I am become Unseelie."

"What?" Pepper gapes.

Tony shrugs. "King of Air and Darkness. Relax about it."

Pepper looks like she would demand more answers, but is forestalled by Loki thrusting Salt Shaker at her. Then Loki is lunging at Tony, wrapping arms and legs around him and _grinding_.

"I would have you now," Loki demands huskily, mouthing at Tony's neck. "So beautiful, my own. I see now how it is you can find my true form so lovely."

Tony rips Loki's blouse open, and Pepper squeaks again. "I'll um. Just. Be in the hall," she says, and steps out.

Tony laughs, moving to press Loki against a wall (_between two bloodstains_), cold blue lips against equally cold blue flesh.

"Now that you have revealed your true nature," Loki pants, "we will have to kill all agents present here, and destroy their base in order to preserve our secrets."

Tony licks a stripe across Loki's collar bone. "Please, Snowflake. Like you weren't planning on killing them all anyway. Even if you made a show of mercy in front of me and Pep, they'd all just die mysteriously in their prison cells a few months apart."

"You knew?"

"You take it personally when the people you consider yours are messed with. It's fine. So do I."

"I love you, Tony Ironsmith."

"And I love you, Silvertongue."

**-l-**

Hel is waiting for them in the hall with Pepper when they emerge, though Pepper cannot see her. She makes a disgusted face at them as she enters the room to collect the souls of the dead, and Tony sticks his tongue out at her. Pep looks at him like he's crazy.

They clear out the base, and return to New York. Once safe in their bedroom, Tony vanishes the Crown of Night and promptly collapses, lapsing into a coma that lasts three days. When he awakes, he looks human again, and the bright understanding of the world he'd experienced during the battle and aftermath has left him.

Tony pouts.

"It will come in time," Loki promises. "You are a very young god, after all."

Tony pouts harder.

_Fin_

**-l-**

**AFTER CREDITS SCENE TAG**

_Press Conference outside Avengers Tower_

"And so," Tony Stark says, standing at a podium weighed down with microphones, his new wife, Lori Stark, at his side. "Cold Iron discovered our location, and was able to extract us from the cell of terrorists that had taken myself, my wife, and Ms. Potts in the hopes of forcing me to design weapons for them."

"Mr. Stark!" a reporter calls. "How was it that Cold Iron was able to find you so quickly? The press release states that you were unable to call for help."

Tony Stark turns to look at his wife, his eyebrows raised in question. The dark beauty rolls her own eyes, and gives a little huff. Tony Stark makes a sad puppy face, to the confusion of all the reporters present.

Lori Stark glares at him, and then seems to relent, murmuring, "The things I do for you, Brightstar." Then she turns to face the press square on, and speaks directly into the microphones mounted on the podium.

"The truth is, I am Cold Iron."

The crowd goes nuts.

Tony Stark looks like all his Christmases and birthdays have come at once.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story! I appreciate all the encouragement, and hope the ending satisfies you!


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